Videopixie (YC S11) Launches To Create A Marketplace For Video Editors | Hacker News Reader

Videopixie (YC S11) Launches To Create A Marketplace For Video Editors

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61 pointstomsaffell17 comments

If the videopixie team is listening, you should really go after the wedding photographer market. Consider the following:

- Most DSLRs shoot video now

- Most brides want photos + video but don't want to pay 2 separate vendors

- Most photographers don't have video editing time/skills

Drop me an email if you want more details on the industry.

Thanks Erik. You're right, and we'll be in touch :)

We used Videopixie for a number of our customer case studies. Their editing service was literally an order of magnitude cheaper than the studio who shot the video was bidding to edit.

The quality was great too, you can easily get multiple iterations and give feedback easily.

My takeaway is that they first started with a product that challenged some of the biggest players. A video distribution platform? Up against YouTube and Vimeo?

But that wasn't the end goal - they just built something, anything, to start a conversation with customers and learn of new needs in the area. After learning of new needs they pivoted and built a new product.

It's not about the idea necessarily - it's about learning and execution.

Thanks Ethan - founder here. You're pretty close to the mark. As we were building out SellStage we had office hours with PG where we said (paraphrasing) "retailers have all these different video related problems, we're not sure which to solve", and he said (paraphrasing) "build a minimal solution to all of them, and see which one does best".

While I love the idea of connecting supply and demand for a niche skill, I worry for folks in the Motion Graphics/Post Production world who are already being paid very poorly for their work [1]. I just hope this product doesn't trivialize the amount of work that goes into video editing and post production. Great idea otherwise.

[1] http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/03/oscars-vfx-protest/

Thanks (founder here). No trivializing intended! We have a lot of very talented editors on Videopixie, and we're constantly impressed by their work. We frequently get their input on pricing, and we adjust. Being a marketplace, the theory is that the market will find the fair market price.

What sort of length are the videos generally? Is it up to the client or is there an imposed duration limit?

The customer decides the length. Nearly all of them are between 30 seconds and 5 minutes. The majority are between 1 and 3 minutes. We recommend that customers keep them short, to keep their viewers happy :)

I think shorter video length makes Videopixie an exception to jianshen's concern. These editors aren't really engaging in exceptionally complex editing work, just the equivalent of TV spots.

Local news outlets often have a division of their marketing team commission freelance editors to make commercials for prospective advertisers.

Thanks for your service! I've got a film industry friend who could use the extra work.

Great to hear. I'm all in favor of letting the market decide. :)

This is a great idea. Much needing this. I wonder if there's service that would let you find video-shooters in locations where your customers live. If you're across the globe, it'd be hard to travel to their office for a testimonial. Finding somebody locally to do this for you is the way to go. Any ideas?

Thanks Cristian, founder here, I think today people mostly go to craigslist or get referrals from friends, to find videographers. It's not a great experience and presents some of the same problems/risks we are trying to solve for post-production (ie: not knowing what's a fair price, not knowing what all the options are, not knowing if the fit will be good, not to mention the relative hassle of finding, communicating & paying the artist). But we get asked the question often, and I think you are absolutely right, we need a better solution to find/hire videographers.

You can use smartshoot.com for that. (I own zero stock in that Company)

I thought you guys were in business??? I met Thomas at a DC HNer meetup about a yr ago and I thought you guys were already launched... did I miss something?

It was available as an early alpha. And we've had users all along, which helped understand what people need. But today is our public announcement.

Got it. Well here's wishing you good luck. I am in the processing of quitting my job to launch a new company, will be joining you guys on the dark side very soon!:)

Btw it will be nice to do another HNer meetup in DC.

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